Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Illamasqua Haul

Because I have no self control when it comes to make up I have decided to buy some more. This post is going to only be about Illamasqua since I got quite a lot, and there are quite a lot of photos for this brand alone, let alone other stuff I've bought recently.

Illamasqua is a brand I have never used before, but always wanted to try. My original haul was quite small and consisted of:

- Liquid Metal - Phenomena- Sealing gel- Lipstick - Apocalips

The first I had wanted for a long time, I had seen it used and it just looked incredible. I can't wait to try it out myself, I can think of so many different uses for it.

Sealing Gel comes as two small bottles, and I'm not sure why it isn't just one larger bottle. It can be used with a bunch of different things mostly to intensify colour. For example, you can mix it with eyeshadows to make them come out as a stronger colour. I am excited to try it!

I know that the photos are never going to do this lipstick justice, so I'm going to have to put in a promotional photo for it. Most people will probably be like 'what on earth did you buy that for?' but itis just so awesome and looks amazing. I don't know if I'll get the guts to wear it out, but I absolutely plan to find a way to use it in a tutorial.

That was my first order, which was actually from the Illamasqua website. I later found out that on the Debenhams website they were selling an exclusive to Debenhams mystery set ~~ooh.

The upside of this is that you get £92 worth of products for £35, the downside is that you only know what two of them are, and you could end up with anything.

The reason I decided to take the gamble was because Illamasqua is a brand I really want to try out, and I thought this was a good way to get a bunch of their stuff to test without having to pay full price. Yes, I lost the ability to chose, but it worked out OK.

Here are photos of the things the set always comes with:

I was very pleased with these since I love the look of the Liquid Metals and wanted the gold one anyway (alone it costs half the price of the total box, so that was a major thing that convinced me), and after swatching the eyeliner on my hand I was amazed at how interesting and unique the colour is. I can't wait to try it on my eyes.

The mystery eyeshadows were Control (off-white matte) and Flasher (murky olive green matte). I honestly would never in a thousand years pick these up and choose to buy them, which I think is the major risk of buying something with 'mystery' items in. I don't think I'm disappointed because I expected this to happen. I'm very willing to try them out, and I've heard that Illamasqua matte eyeshadows are some of the best quality and most pigmented. I just wish I had any idea how on earth to use Flasher in a way that won't look ugly!

The mystery nail varnishes are Gamma and Jan. Gamma is a very bright neon orange, which isn't necessarily my sort of colour, but it's very nice. I'll definitely find a time to wear it. Jan is a weird sort of light pink that kind of looks lilac in certain lights. Again, not a colour I would pick, but I will definitely wear it.

So verdict time...would I buy this if I knew what was in it? No, probably not. Like I said, these colours are not ones I would pick out for myself. But knowing now what Glister looks like in person I can't regret buying it. It is such an amazing colour that I probably would never have bought if I just saw it on the website.

Bearing this in mind, and that I wanted another Liquid Metal I feel like I probably did get my money's worth. Liquid Metals are £17.50, and Precision Ink costs £17, which comes to £34.50 anyway. I paid £35 and got two eyeshadows and two nail varnishes that I will probably end up using at some point, and can be used as references to the quality of Illamasqua products in general without having spent the full £92.

I can't wait to try all of this out, ESPECIALLY my Apocalips lipstick, and Glister.